The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see
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The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see resource for landlubbers and mariners alike.

Carol Gafford is a public librarian, family historian, amateur archivist and book savior. She is currently the youth services/outreach librarian at the Swansea Public Library and volunteers for several museum and historical societies including the Marine Museum at Fall River, the Swansea Historical Society and the Bristol Historical and Preservation society. She is the editor of Past Times, the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and is always looking for a new project to take on.

After more than a decade of steadily intriguing work, 2013 should be the year when Springfield's Fear Nuttin' Band finally breaks through to national success. The reggae sextet released their third album, "Vibes Love Revolution" on Election Day, and it debuted at number two on the ITunes reggae charts and number eight on the Billboard reggae charts.

Last Friday night Fear Nuttin' Band headlined the Brighton Music Hall, keeping a diverse crowd of about 150 fans dancing and celebrating for more than 90 minutes with their unusual blend of reggae, metal-rock guitars, and hip-hop. Fear Nuttin' Band is scheduled to play Club 58 in Quincy on January 26.

Like many fans, we became aware of Fear Nuttin' around 2008, with their "Yardcore" album on the Bodog Records label. That imprint, which also had the Wu Tang Clan at the time, went belly up almost simultaneously with the albums' release, which meant no promotional push at all. But the sextet, which began in 2001, kept working, often on combination shows with their good pals, the Washington, D.C. reggae band Soja. By 2011, their second album, "Move Positive," with some songs co-written with Soja members, was helping raise their profile, along with a steady touring schedule and a reputation for outstandingly steamy live shows.

The new album, like its predecessor, is on the band's own label, Boom Blaze Records, and was produced by Fear Nuttin' Band guitarist/keyboardist Chris Regan. The core of the band, Regan, guitarist Jay Chung, and bassist Brian Daigle, grew up together in Enfield, Connecticut, just outside Springfield, and were playing in various rock bands together from their freshman year of high school.

"Jay is actually from Jamaica, so he's the one who originally got us all into reggae," said Regan after Friday's concert. "We liked it and got more and more into it. How can you not like reggae?"

The band's initial stages were still rock with reggae flavorings until 2001, when their vocalist left, and they decided to replace him with two Jamaican singers, known as Roosta and Prowla. Both of the singers are as adept at reggae and soul as they are at hip-hop verses, so Fear Nuttin' Band became an incredible amalgamation of reggae, rock, metal, hip-hop, and soul.

Drummer Mike Fuchs is the newest member, replacing the original timekeeper, who left about two years ago. In true grassroots fashion, the band found Fuchs on the internet, mainly because he was such a huge fan of their music.

"We found these amazing clips of him on YouTube," said Regan, "and he was right there in the Springfield area, so it was a natural fit."

Fear Nuttin' Band opened their Friday night show the same way the new album opens, with the musical mixmaster titled "Fear Nuttin'," which veers from a hip-hop intro to metal rock guitars with a thunderous reggae beat. That sort of stylistic variety was a part of the whole night, as the next song, "Vibes," utilized numerous tempo shifts as it traversed punk-rock/metal to smooth soul. By the time the band went into "Move Positive" the focus had chagned to old style, dancehall reggae--although with crunching guitar lines.

Chung was celebrating his birthday last weekend, and he sang the lead on the lilting reggae/r&b love ballad "Just Your Love,' displaying an admirable ability to shift between sweet tenor and falsetto vocals. Classic reggae fans may have preferred "It's Not So Easy," a midtempo number that evoked Bob Marley. But then a bit later, dub met hip-hop with the two lead vocalists trading verses on "Lost."

The easy reggae groove of "Rebel" showed immediately why that tune has become one the band's most popular live tunes. But it was more like metal/trip-hop when Fear Nuttin' swung into "Friend for the Longest Time." The song titled "So Regular" is a hypnotic reggae piece which sort of decries the way most people are determined to be unexceptional.

That revered old dancehall style came to the fore again in the delightfully lilting "Fears," wherein the singers suggest folks "throw your fears into the ocean." The unlikely reggae/metal synthesis was never better than on "Champagne," where Daigle's bass beat made it seem like a three-guitar summit. The tone shifted a bit to metallic crunch for "If I Ruled the World," where again the dual vocals worked well, as call-and-response here, or as contrast-then-harmony there.

Fear Nuttin' Band's title cut from the new album, "Vibes Love Revolution," was another gloriously lilting bit of reggae at first, which then morphed into increasingly driving, even piledriving, rock by the time it finished with the audience dancing and yelping joyously. A more rock-oriented march through "Fear Nuttin'" finished the night in swirl of heated passion.

If anyone felt reggae was tepid or laidback music, they probably have never heard the Fear Nuttin' Band. All the blended--and sometimes clashing--styles can be dizzying, but all those fiery elements are done over a classic reggae foundation, and it's going to get you up and moving. Ya mon.